An 18-year-old and two juveniles have been charged in a case involving a stolen vehicle.

Deputy Rex Herald of the Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to a home on North Terry Road on October 14 around 2:30 a.m. to investigate the missing vehicle. The owner said her two minor children were also missing from the house.

As the officer started to leave the residence, he said he noticed a car matching the woman’s description of her vehicle. It slowed near the drive, then continued north on Terry Rd.

As he attempted to catch up with the car, he said the high rate of speed the car was going made that impossible until the car slowed to turn right onto Harrod Road. Deputy Herald said a plastic bag was thrown from the driver’s side and hit the road. He stopped the vehicle when it failed to stop for a stop sign.

When he approached the cr, no one was in the driver’s seat. Makayla Noelle Ross, 18, Austin, was sitting in the back passenger seat with the two girls. One of those girls was one of the missing juveniles. The boy sitting in the front passenger seat was identified as the other missing juvenile.

Deputy James Shelton arrived at the scene to assist, leaving Deputy Herald free to search for the plastic bag.

He found it still on the road and noted that the aroma of marijuana clung to the bag, but there was none in it.

The car’s interior also smelled like burned marijuana, the officer related in his probable cause affidavit.

The two juveniles were positively identified as the children reported missing. They were transported to the juvenile holding facility at Brownstown, the officer said. Preliminary charges against them were auto theft and possession of stolen property.

Ross was arrested and transported to the Scott County Security Center.

She appeared that same morning in Scott Superior Court on a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class A misdemeanor. On her not guilty plea, a public defender was appointed to the case and a jury trial was scheduled for December 30.

Bond was set at $10,000 corporate surety bond or $1,000 cash, but Ross was released on her own recognizance with the condition that she has no further contact with the two juveniles.